Whole recombinant yeast-based vaccines: concept, importance, issues, and future scope

Despite their tremendous benefits to society, currently licensed vaccines, including mRNA-based ones, are far from ideal and suffer several issues. Common problems associated with all types of vaccine formulations currently in clinical use include thermolabile nature, poor shelf life at ambient temperature, and the continuous need for cold chain and sometimes ultra-low temperature. Several approaches have been tested in the past to surmount these shortcomings. This review discusses the advantages of whole yeast (WY) or whole recombinant yeast-based (WRY) vaccines compared to other vaccine formulations to overcome the above-mentioned issues. The interaction between yeast cells and the host immune system in relevance to the WRY vaccines has been discussed along with the importance of whole yeast cells in the development of anti-fungal vaccines by highlighting the bottlenecks hampering the use of WRY in vaccine formulation. Specifically, the present review highlighted the status of WRY vaccines, including those in clinical trials, and also summarized the guidelines, one should follow while conducting research or reporting the data related to WRY vaccines.